Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/257

Rh letter, "An obscure feeling convinces me that a man is destined shortly to appear who will reveal to the age the truth of which it is in need." Was it to be some Saint-Simon to found a political religion, or some Lamennais to establish a new Catholicism? However this may be, Čaadaev looks for the completion of human destiny and for a new evangel from heaven. In the Apology (1837) he gives expression to his profound conviction that the Russians have been appointed to solve many social problems, to perfect a considerable part of the ideas formulated among the older societies, and to supply the answers to the most difficult questions that confront humanity.

In the Writing he demands that Russia shall effect a synthesis of east and west, but in the Apology he modifies this view. At the outset he completes his characterisation of east and west. The east is religiously contemplative, the west is active; hence the east has left the conduct of affairs entirely in the hands of government, whereas the west bases government upon law. Both east and west have done great things; the east was the pioneer; but the west, more energetic, subsequently absorbed the east. Ultimately the east fell asleep in its indolent "synthesis." In this characterisation of the east Čaadaev takes sides definitely against the slavophils, who conceived Russia as of the east and played her off against the west. Čaadaev recognises the importance of the east, but its importance is subordinate to that of the west, and he will not admit that Russia is essentially eastern. This is inconsistent, for in the Writing he represents Russia as of the east, and at a later date (as, for example, in a letter to Schelling in 1842), we find that Čaadaev refers to modesty, bashfulness, and ascetic contemplativeness as characteristic of the Russian spirit—and at that time these traits were regarded, and by many are still regarded, as typically oriental.

In the Apology Čaadaev is inclined to refer Russia's defects to her geographical situation, to her position on the uttermost limit of civilisation. He frequently refers to this position in the world, emphasising the assertion that the Russians are northlanders, and he insists that the Russians have to a predominant extent allowed themselves to be guided by government. When he makes this an occasion for a compliment to Nicholas and his dynasty, we are reminded of the negotiations which in 1833 Čaadaev conducted with Benckendorff